Jake reached down and brushed his fingers over her c.l.i.t, and she jerked as a fresh wave of horniness a.s.sailed her.
"Oh, G.o.d. Baby, I have to move. I need..."
"f.u.c.k me. Adam, f.u.c.k my a.s.s. Give it to me."
"Ginny." He held her hips, spread her wider, and sank deep into her.
Jake continued to play his fingers back and forth over her c.l.i.t, and Ginny let the pa.s.sion, the almost feral greed that filled her, take over. Her hips moved, her body hearing only the pure, primal call to mate.
Adam moved inside her, and her entire world narrowed, became the dark and dangerous glide of his c.o.c.k moving in and out of her a.s.s.
Then Jake reached down and pinched her c.l.i.t, and she screamed as her o.r.g.a.s.m exploded. Adam's curse echoed in her ears, but nothing, nothing could overcome the crazed pulsing as she came and came in a pleasure so acute it made her feel faint. She felt Adam stiffen, and she felt the throbbing of his c.o.c.k. Then heat, the heat of his s.e.m.e.n pressing against the latex held deep inside her made cry out and come just a little bit more.
Adam slumped over her, his closeness warming her suddenly chilled body. He held his weight off her, and the sound of his gasping filled her with satisfaction, even as she struggled for breath herself.
"Christ, that was hot." Jake bent down and kissed her shoulder. "Nothing has ever turned me on the way that just did. Are you okay, honey?"
Ginny could only grunt in response. Jake laughed, and she couldn't blame him. Adam took more of his weight on his arms, and she realized, almost absently, that his c.o.c.k was still inside her.
"Easy." His whispered word was all the warning she got before he gently withdrew from her.
Sprawled face down on the bed, Ginny couldn't move. She could only fight for breath as her heart continued to pound.
She started in surprise at the sensation of something warm and wet and soft against her tender a.n.u.s. Adam's "shh" immediately calmed her, and she let him clean her, embarra.s.sment strangely absent.
"Can't move." She thought she should get that right out there, because she didn't think she'd ever move again.
"You don't have to, honey. Just lie there. We'll take care of you."
She turned her head, looked at Jake. "Your turn."
"Later." He bent down and kissed her again. "Rest now."
"I'll lift her. You pull the sheets down." Adam's voice sounded close, and then his arms were lifting her.
"Got it. We'll coc.o.o.n her for a while, see if we can get her to nap."
Her thoughts had cleared, and she supposed she should give them each a blast for talking about her as if she wasn't there.
As if sensing her mood, Adam kissed the back of her neck, then eased her onto her side on the sheet. Rather than just setting her down, he lay down beside her, and tucked her in close.
"Yes, I know you don't need us to take care of you as if you were a baby. But we enjoy doing so, so why not let us have our way with you?"
Ginny snorted. "You've been doing that a lot, lately. Having your way with me."
"Yes." She heard the laughter in Adam's voice. "Yes, we have, and thank you very much."
"You're welcome." Ginny knew she'd get up before too long. There was dinner to make, and her son to welcome home from school. And, she had to let Kelsey know if she was coming into work or not-though at the moment the "not" was winning.
But why not just lay here, for a time, and let herself be pampered? Ginny smiled. She thought it might be the best idea she'd had months, if not years.
Chapter 18.
"You were f.u.c.king lucky to get away." Jerry continued to navigate his old Toyota through the streets of Dallas. He'd just picked Deke up in a slightly run-down section of town. At least the b.a.s.t.a.r.d had been smart enough to jump on the shuttle and get himself the h.e.l.l away from the airport to meet him.
"Tell me about it." Deke hadn't waited long to begin to yank the fake mustache from his face. Jerry handed him some tissues and a bottle of water. Deke proceeded to scrub at his upper lip as if putting out a fire.
"She wasn't there, was she?" Jerry did a good job of sounding disappointed.
"She was there, all right. My timing was off. The b.i.t.c.h left just before I got there. f.u.c.k." He pounded the dash with his fist. "She has to be back in that p.i.s.sant town by now. That's the only thing that makes any sense."
Jerry shot Deke a glance he hoped looked doubtful. "You think so?"
"Yeah, I think that f.u.c.king sheriff has her as his own personal piece." Deke shrugged. "I don't care about that. When I'm done punishing her for what she did to me, you can be sure I'll be pa.s.sing her around." He stopped, and Jerry noticed that his gaze went unfocused. Then he blinked, and continued. "I figure the man's got to be getting tired of her by now. If I can find out where he has her stashed, then I could wait until she's alone, and grab her."
Jerry had to work to keep the smile off his face. "You know what? Now that I think about it, I think you could be right, pal of mine. Yeah, he must be the Adam I heard them talking about at the restaurant the other day. After you left, I went back, you know, just in case. They said some guy named Adam went after Ginny."
"Sheriff Adam Kendall, yeah, that's him."
Jerry grinned. "Okay, then, and if she left before you, I bet I know where your woman is, right now. I bet she's right back at work, at that restaurant. Yeah, because that other one, the blond one, was b.i.t.c.hing about having to do the morning and afternoon shifts alone. Your woman probably works till two or three in the afternoon, every day."
"Yeah, she would only work those shifts before, too. She hated to work after three because of that little b.a.s.t.a.r.d of hers. Had to be home for Benny." Deke smirked.
Jerry didn't like that look one bit. But h.e.l.l, it would be up to the sheriff to make things right. He had it all figured out. As soon as the Kendalls came up with the cash he'd ask for, he'd tell them where Deke was. They wouldn't expect him to be right in their very own town. Only a moron would be that stupid.
Which just about summed up Deke Walters, Jerry thought. He pressed on with his plan. "I bet it would be easy as pie to stake out the place, and then follow her to wherever she's staying once she gets off work. A more laid-back, hick town I've never seen. Yeah, that's what you should do."
"How the h.e.l.l am I going to stake the place out? I don't have a car."
"You can use mine." Jerry gave Deke his best grin. That was going to be part of his "defense." He was going to have Deke charged with car theft. He supposed he should have felt some remorse, but h.e.l.l, the way Deke was going, if Jerry didn't make his move first, Deke was bound to take him down with him.
That would never do.
"I've got me a room at that motel just off the interstate outside of l.u.s.ty. You take the car, and I'll wait at the motel for you. Then you bring her back there-when it's dark-and we can head out the next day with her in the trunk and go wherever you want to go."
"Yeah." Deke looked out the window.
Jerry recognized that feint. That was Deke in full lying mode. That meant he had a plan of his own.
Didn't matter to Jerry. If everything fell into place, before Deke could even begin to follow his b.i.t.c.h, he'd be arrested, and Jerry would be a few hundred thousand dollars richer.
"Okay." Deke looked at him, and Jerry had to hold back the shiver he felt deep inside. He'd never seen Deke look so cold. "Okay, let's do it."
Jerry felt relieved when they arrived at the motel. Deke kept his hat pulled low and his head down as he made his way out of the car and into the room. He took the time to shower, and put on the fresh clothes Jerry had brought him.
"I need your cell phone, too," Deke said as he zipped his pants.
f.u.c.k. Jerry had planned to use it to make his call. Still, he didn't want to take a chance and push Deke's b.u.t.tons.
"Sure, bud. No problem. You want I should enter the number of the place here, so you can call when you're on your way?"
"No, I'll remember it."
This time Jerry did shiver. He wasn't certain what Deke Walters had in mind, but whatever it was, it didn't include his coming back to pick up his old buddy, Jerry Stone.
Probably just as well. He had a feeling he'd do a h.e.l.l of a lot better without having anything more to do with Deke Walters as soon as the man stepped out the door.
Jerry nodded, and handed over his car keys and his cell phone. "Good hunting."
"Yeah. That b.i.t.c.h is going to be mine. She won't even know I'm there. What do they call that, hiding in plain sight? Stupid c.u.n.t won't know what's happening until she feels the back of my hand."
Jerry patted Deke on the shoulder, told him good luck again, then exhaled heavily when that man left the room. Standing at the window, peeking through the curtain, Jerry watched Deke Walters drive off in his car. He waited just a few minutes, to be certain Deke was well and truly gone. When he felt confident Walters was on his way to stake out l.u.s.ty Appet.i.tes, he pulled out his wallet, and the phone number he'd put there. He'd studied all the players, all the people in l.u.s.ty. There was no way he'd deal directly with Sheriff Kendall. But he'd caught enough whispers to know that if Kendall was anything, it was a dutiful son. He'd also seen the woman in question, and overheard her say a word or two about Ginny Rose. d.a.m.ned if he could figure some women, but it appeared the redhead actually liked that wh.o.r.e, Ginny. So he'd appeal to the woman's soft heart, paint a suitably gruesome portrait of Deke Walters, and wait for the money to arrive.
Satisfied his plan was sound, Jerry Stone sat down at the phone beside the bed and began to make his call.
Adam looked up from his computer as Jake came into the sheriff's office. His brother had stayed behind at the house until it was time for Ginny to go in to work for the lunch shift, and then he'd escorted her there.
Gone now from Jake's face was the smooth expression, the easy smiles that he'd worn for Ginny's benefit.
Their woman wasn't likely fooled one bit, but that didn't mean the Kendall men wouldn't do everything in their power to put on their game faces and try to make her feel secure and at ease.
"Anything?" Jake asked.
"Nothing. He must have used a fake ID to travel, because none of the flights into Atlantic City the other day report having a Deke Walters on their rosters."
"I don't imagine that circulating his picture got us anywhere, either." Jake sat, sprawled out with his legs in front of him and his arms resting lightly on the arms of the chair.
"No. n.o.body sees anything anymore. Son of a b.i.t.c.h."
"Steven's going to meet Benny after school," Matt said from his desk. "It's horseback lesson day. You have to figure Walters is going to be back from the coast by now. Do you think he knows she's here?"
"We've got no way of knowing. Why go all the way to Jersey? Why not check l.u.s.ty out first? Maybe he isn't back yet, but I'm not taking any chances." The phone rang, and Adam sent a glance to Matt that had his cousin picking up the call.
"I'm wondering if we need to revisit some of the outlying lodgings." Jake sat forward. "Visit all the motels and inns along the interstate and the state highway. We can show the pictures of both Walters and Jerry Stone. Maybe-"
"Adam," Matt interrupted, and his tone set Adam's instincts on alert. "Aunt Samantha's on the phone. She says it's urgent."
Adam reached out to his desk phone and jerked the receiver to his ear. "Mother?"
"Darling, I just had a rather interesting conversation with a man who thinks I'm stupid."
Adam exhaled. His stomach had apparently tensed up for nothing. "Mother, I can't imagine anyone really thinking that you're stupid-at least not anyone who knows you."
"Well thank you for that, darling. And since this Mister Stone doesn't know me, it was easy for me to act suitably intimidated, and eager to pay him the outrageous sum of three hundred thousand dollars in order for him to tell you where Deke Walters is."
"Stone. Jerry Stone called you?"
"Yes, and can you believe the idiot didn't even give me a phony name?"
Adam met Jake's sharpened gaze. His brother had gotten to his feet, clearly ready to move instantly.
Adam tried to sound calm for his mother's benefit, but he doubted she bought the act. "Tell me the rest of what he said, please."
"He's at the Green Gables, that new motel beside the IHOP. Room 109. And he's waiting for you to bring him the money I promised him. Because you're a good son, and will do anything I ask you to do, don't you know?"
Memories of the showdown at the l.u.s.ty Clinic weeks before, and his own mother's lament that she'd been out of town and unable to partic.i.p.ate had Adam saying, "You'll leave this with me, now, won't you, Mother? You'll stay away from the place?"
"Well of course, darling. I'm just going to go and have some lunch and let you take care of everything."
Adam hung up the phone and looked at his brother, and then over at Matt. "Gentlemen, do you want to go for a little ride?"
"Jerry Stone called Mother?"
Adam could see the fury on his brother's face. He nodded. He filled them in on the conversation, and then said, "Apparently he thought she'd be an easy mark."
"The man's f.u.c.king lucky we're going to be the ones in his face, and not her." Jake turned and headed toward the door.
"So I was thinking. Matt..."
"I'll call in the state boys and have them meet us there. I wonder if Stone understands that since the charges against Walters have been upgraded, the ones against him have been, too."
"Oh, I don't think he's even thought this through at all, which is lucky for us." Adam headed out the door, then turned to Matt, who was right behind him. "But I'm certainly going to enjoy pointing a few harsh realities out to the b.a.s.t.a.r.d." And he made a promise to himself that he would see to it that poor waif living in terror at Jerry's place got the help she needed-even if she didn't know she needed it.
"That makes two of us," Jake said. "Should we let Ginny know what's happening?"
"Nah." Adam reached the driver's door of his cruiser. "She'll be at work for a few hours, yet. With a little luck, we'll have both Stone and Walters behind bars before the end of her shift."
"From your mouth to G.o.d's ears," Jake said.
His brother beside him, his cousin in the cruiser behind him, Adam headed out of l.u.s.ty, more than a little ready to have a showdown with Jerry Stone.
It really felt good to be back at work. Ginny had never been the sort of woman who could spend any real amount of time doing nothing. Likely, that was because of the way she'd been raised.
What memories she had of her mother were of a woman who spent her days stretched out on the sofa, either drinking booze or doing drugs or doing the other. At the time she didn't know what it meant when strange men came to their apartment and went into her mother's bedroom with her. She did now, and she wondered, as she carried a tray of dishes into the kitchen, if maybe her grandmother might not be forgiven for her hard att.i.tude toward her eldest daughter.
Kelsey fairly exploded into the kitchen from the small hall that led from her office, used only for the necessary business of running l.u.s.ty Appet.i.tes.
"We can all relax. After a very sincere heart-to-heart and primo negotiating on the part of yours truly, it appears that Mr. Danforth at the Poultry Market is going to be able to deliver our chickens, after all." She looked up at the clock, an evil kind of grin on her face. "In just over one hour from now, or the deep discounts begin."